Jeremiah Powless watched his 5-year-old son cover a gingerbread house with icing and then with candy. The gingerbread house was actually graham crackers stuck to a tiny milk carton with marshmallow cream.

It turns out that education can be good for the stomach—as well for the intellect and parent-child bonding.

The Kirtland Early Childhood Center father took time off of work December 13, 2016 to be with his son. Parents, guardians, and children filled the KECC cafeteria working on their Christmas projects.

“I’m a working professional. But I think it’s very important to make time for your children,” Powless said. “These are the type of activities they’re going to remember. So it’s really important to my wife and I—we both work—that one of us always show up.”

The songs and lights of the Christmas season can be a magical time for both children and adults, filling us with memories of Christmas past and with new memories.

Schools throughout the Central Consolidated School District held holiday music programs for two weeks in December at the District’s Phil Thomas Performing Arts Center in Shiprock, the Brooks/Isham Performing Arts Center in Kirtland, and at the schools themselves.

Tse’ Bit Ai’ Middle School featured its Jazz Band students, Intermediate Band, and Advanced Band in a Dec. 5, 2016 Winter Concert at the Phil Thomas Performing Arts Center. It followed up with its Beginning Band students performing Dec. 8 in the same location.

“What I liked best about the performance was all of us being together to show the community what we could do, where our talents are in school, and how music is important to education,” said Jacob Harvey, an 8th grader in the Advanced Band at Tse’ Bit Ai’ Middle School in Shiprock.

We are excited to have a brand new, state-of-the-art learning facility for our students!

As part of our efforts to help students and parents become familiar with the new surroundings, we will be hosting a “New School Orientation Reception” for students, parents and community on Wednesday, December 14, 2016. The new school will be open from 4 to 7 p.m. to allow interested individuals to do a walkthrough of the building.

We will use the time to also thank the architects, builders and construction companies who worked tirelessly to complete the building for our children. We hope that you will take some time out of your busy schedules to visit the new school.

Our work to get our students prepared to occupy their new school will also include a “Dry Run Day” on Thursday, December 15, 2016. This day will require parents and buses to drop-off and pick-up students at the new school. We have attached a map of the new school traffic pattern for you to follow when dropping off and picking up your students on that day.

It will be a brighter Christmas morning for many San Juan County children thanks to Shiprock High Marine Corps Jr. ROTC cadets collecting new toys for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots in San Juan County, New Mexico.

“This is kids helping kids. A lot of these toys are going to go to the indigent families in the area,” said Jason Crawford, a Marine Corps veteran and the Toys for Tots coordinator in San Juan County. “A lot of the layoffs that have happened this year, people being unemployed. It’s hard times around there because of our gas field.”

The cadets—for the third Saturday—will be collecting new toys Dec. 10, 2016 at both Farmington Wal-Marts, Kmart, Big Lots, Sam’s Club, and Sportsman’s Warehouse. Twenty-five Shiprock High cadets also collected toys and monetary donations Nov. 26 and Dec. 3 at those locations.

Army Ranger Staff Sgt. Quentin Mason, an Ojo Amarillo Elementary School parent and a veteran who served three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, sat with other parents in the bleachers during the school’s annual Veterans Day ceremony, held Nov. 11, 2016, in the gymnasium.

More than 500 students from kindergarten through the fifth grade—the entire school—performed a variety of songs following the posting of the Colors by the Upper Fruitland Veterans Association Color Guard.

The National Anthem was sung by a student in Navajo and English. Students also sang God Bless America, You’re a Grand Old Flag, and Yankee Doodle.

“The beginning when the Flag came in, seeing the Colors, and the kids singing got emotional for me. I’m usually not emotional. I don’t know why,” Mason said. “I always teach my kids about that, being a veteran, to respect it.”

Trees, Gym, and Music Room—Saved from Ruth N. Bond Elementary—Are Now Part of the New Judy Nelson Elementary School

A tree that stood in front of Ruth N. Bond Elementary now stands in front of the new Judy Nelson Elementary School.

The tree never moved—just the schools.

The tree, boxed in by a chain-link fence for protection from being run over by earth movers, survived the demolition of Ruth N. Bond Elementary in the fall of 2015 and the construction of Judy Nelson Elementary in 2016 on its footprint.

The gymnasium and music room were also kept, as well as large mature trees across from the front of the gym and on the playgrounds in the back of the school.

Principal Steve Carlson Reflects on Receiving the National Distinguished Principal for New Mexico Award

Principal Steve Carlson attributes his school’s success to his students and staff.

Judy Nelson Elementary earned an A on the New Mexico Public Education Department’s 2016 School Grade Report Card, while Carlson received a 2016 National Distinguished Principal Award for New Mexico from the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

“It’s an incredibly big honor … but it’s really not about me,” Carlson said about the principal award. “It’s more of an honor that speaks to the entire staff and the people I’ve had the privilege of working with over the years.”

Judy Nelson Elementary School exceeded the statewide benchmark on its 2016 School Report Card for school growth—its improved student performance and its current standing—as well as growth of its highest performing students, and for its opportunity to learn.

The description of a rooster by a Naschitti Elementary student drew laughter from several Navajo Nation Council delegates and audience members when the student, holding a puppet Rooster, said in Navajo, “I am a rooster. I eat corn and I wake up people.”

The Council delegates quietly smiled as they watched Naschitti Elementary students perform Winter Stories in the Dine language. It was Oct. 18, 2016—day two of the Navajo Nation Council’s Fall Session in the Council Chamber in the Navajo Nation capital in Window Rock, Arizona.